A View from Sierra County

Remote Posting

Yay, I'm in Berkeley, sitting in a room that is almost directly over the spot where this hotel must have placed one of their public wireless hubs, and awestruck by how much faster the internet runs where other people live.  DD brought her cool, new laptop and just finished up some of her online coursework and let me have a chance to catch up on email, so I thought I would give all of you a quick update.  Hopefully, by tomorrow I can get some pictures of our spectacular view of the San Francisco Bay up, as well as the snow I left behind (we were without power for something like 20 hours yesterday as a result of a wet, heavy snowstorm and more to come throughout the week - might as well be gone, eh?)

First, go and check out Fibers' new website, and consider entering our Easter Bunny contest!  I am pretty excited about it, and about teaching more classes this spring.  Saturday's lace class went very well.  We have a nifty new store calendar located in the sidebar on the left.

Next little bit of news is that I haven't finished February Lady yet, though I AM closer.  I didn't knit in the dark yesterday or otherwise I might be done!  I DID start a new little project, which I will work on tomorrow, though it has to remain a secret until next month.

Most important - I get to meet Carrie on Thursday!  Pictures and update to follow!

By The Sea

Although I have lived in California most of my life, I have never had the luxury of spending long periods of time on the seashore.  It is a world unto its own, in much the same way as my dear and familiar mountain world, however most of DH's family is very intimate with shore (and even sea) life.  He worked on commercial fishing boats as a young man, and his father has run them for the past thirty five years, though the last four or so have been in so-called retirement, captaining his own good-sized salmon vessel with my MIL alongside.  They will be sitting this season out, as the population of salmon has steadily diminished in the lower 48 states and no commercial fishing will be allowed in their region this year.... a blow as they are both in their mid-seventies and hope to have another season or two in before quitting for good.

Glenn's mom was happy to take a long hike along the bluffs north of Fort Bragg during our stay... we started our hike by crossing the newly-refurbished Pudding Creek walking bridge, and looking up Pudding Creek towards the town.                                          

This wide view was about the last of the sun we saw on our late afternoon hike, as the hot Sacramento Valley temperatures of last week worked together with the marine climate to pull coastal fog in.  The weather was still pleasantly warm, and a balmy afternoon to observe lots of flowering plants and sea birds.

Braver souls than we were enjoying a dip in the creek's estuary, while we were content to wander along the bluffs, following various little paths that showed private coves and beaches.

The shoreline as it stretches north has both rocky places and long, sandy beaches... my favorite beach in the area, Ten Mile Beach (photo link to a great picture I DIDN'T take, though I posted several back in 2006, on an earlier visit), starts below the hills where Glenn's parents live and another well-known beach in Fort Bragg is Glass Beach.

Glenn, always more adventurous than average, took the cliffside route, while Diana and I took the better-traveled main route, though we reunited and found these great keyholes in the rocks.

We observed groups of both sea lions and cormorants on shore rocks, though they were too far to fit within my wimpy camera's range...

As you can tell from the photo, by this point in our excursion, the fog had thickened considerably and we decided to head back towards town and get ready for a fine dinner out at the North Coast Brewing Company, complete with sampling a dozen of their special blends (10 came in a sampler of 4 oz. glasses that Glenn and I shared).  I don't know if the balmy coastal fogs have anything to do with it, but North Coast's famous Red Seal Ale, along with some of their lesser-known offerings, such as La Merle, Brother Thelonious (in honor of Thelonious Monk) and Rasputin Ale are amongst the tastiest beers I have had.  We enjoyed the beer so much that we all returned on Saturday for the noon tour, which was excellent.  One trivia fact we came away with was that, even though North Coast turns out 30,000 barrels of brews a year, that is the equivalent of one morning production run at the Budweiser brewery in Northern California.... though I like their's better!

Touring Around Utah

I had a great vacation with my sweetie, touring around a few parts of Utah and visiting his brother, Dave, and my dear friend Margene, and her husband Smith.  She has already posted photos of our group Easter breakfast at their favorite Silver Fork Lodge, and our junket to Park City, but I will embellish a bit more...

We flew into SLC airport on Good Friday, and were relieved that it wasn't completely packed with holiday travelers.  The weathe was a good ten degrees warmer than average for early April and daffodils and trees in full flower abounded.  Dave treated us to a fabulous dinner at one of SLC's finest restaurants, the Log Haven, up Mill Creek Canyon, one of many side canyons into the Wasatch.  The dinner lived up to the restaurant's award-winning reputation, right down to fantastic desserts, and we got to see the place in daylight a few days later when we drove back to pick up Glenn's glasses, which had fallen out of his jacket pocket during dinner.  The rustic resort architecture and awe-inspiring setting would be enough to win lots of attention, but the food really was a notch (or three) above our usual fare.

Glenn loves history, and so do I, though maybe not always as much.  He had helped his brother move to Salt Lake City last winter and discovered the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers Museum back then and couldn't wait to share it with me.  The first settlers began arriving in SLC in the mid 1840s, so the collections span a period of over 150 years in great detail.

This museum is vast, with each auditorium-sized room (the building is a replica of an early opera house) packed with display cases.  There are examples of so many types of textiles and early pioneer implements that we spent all morning poring over that section, then had to take a long lunch break to rescue Dave, who had unknowingly locked himself out of his house when he gave us the keys to his car that morning.

The first photo shows a large floor loom, surrounded by fiber preparation implements; the quality of the lighting in the museum was my only complaint, as many items could be better highlighted with proper lighting, but I wanted to take this photo for Sara, to demonstrate the respect given to weaving by the museum staff.

We returned to finish the musem, checking out the wagons and handcarts and other memorabilia of the westward migration until almost closing time last Saturday.  Whew, a whole day!  This photo is features the original eagle over the gates to Brigham Young's ranch, set in a room full of display cases of various farm and home implements.  The museum was featuring a small display of straw weaving, as the early pioneers had a hat-making cottage industry in the 1850s (it's hot there in the summer), and some of the tools used in that process were located in these cases.

Over the course of the week, we also took in the Temple Square Museum (the spring gardens surrounding the buildings were incredible, though it was snowing and I didn't stop to take photos) and Glenn visited the Hill AFB Aerospace Museum, while I enjoyed the Salt Lake City main library (which will be the subject of a full post later this week).

After exhausting ourselves at the Pioneer Museum, we took a leisurely drive back out to Dave's on surface streets, allowing us to discover the Bad Ass Coffee Company, an SLC legend, where we picked up some souveniers.  Burros used to be used to haul Kona coffee off the mountains to processers, and this company continues to honor their hard work.

Easter Sunday featured connecting Glenn and Dave with Margene and Marshall, along with great food and mountain scenery at Brighton and Solitude resorts, where the snow was almost gone, but the clouds were beautiful.

We later spent the afternoon driving up Emigration Canyon, finding the only open coffee shop in town in the university district and even making a pilgrimage out to the shores of the Great Salt Lake by ourselves.

We had driven from Dave's out through Magna, the company town for Kennicott Mines, and ended up in front of Salt Air, which Glenn had remembered reading about and always wanted to see...

The palace has a long history as a resort, surviving drought, flooding and other trials, to be renovated into its present incarnation as a nightclub... with the lake right outside the door (though the shores are a lot lower; the waters actually used to surround the building and people could boat up!).

We explored the shore and got some nice lake photos, but really could have spent a few days learning about and experiencing the lake... someone wrote and asked me if I tried floating in it.  It was a bit too cold yet for that.  I would like to return someday and visit Antelope Island.  I really am ALL about the natural history more than any other kind....

We were very lucky that Margene and Marshall had offered to take Monday off and tour us around... the photo at the top of this post is the two of us with the Park City bear; he was friendly and so were they.  We pretty much had Park City to ourselves, and covered as much country thereabouts as 2/3rd of a day would allow.  Margene even managed to squeeze in a stop at Three Wishes (it's a good thing they don't have an online store; it would break me) on the way home!  She had Glenn interested in portable spinning wheels for me (that is, til he checked the prices), and Marshall was intrigued to learn that I had a circular sock knitting machine (now to find the time to master it and share some socks with dear friends!).

Our time was running short and Tuesday Glenn and I had to divide up for part of the day to cover our hearts' desires before we returned home.  After spending the morning roaming the Temple Square area and lunching at the Lion Cafe in the basement of one of the oldest buildings in SLC, he headed to the aircraft and I to the library, until Margene picked me up after work and took me home to walk Moxie (I would have thought he remembered me, he was so excited, but after all he is always like that!).  She gave me a spinning lesson on Emmylou and took me to SnB, where I got to get all kinds of hugs.  This is the only good photo I managed to get, capturing Anne and Miriam in the midst of some secret collaboration that will reveal itself later this spring.

I'll give you a little hint; it involves Wooly Wonka!

I was delighted to see old friends, and though happy to be home, will look forward to returning someday soon.